Walter Lorenz – författare

This book bears testimony to the value of a progressive form of academisation of social work education in most European countries, including former communist countries which had to re-establish social work education. It also manifests the confidence of contributors in belonging to a serious academic discipline, and the fruitfulness of bringing research ‘home’ from neighbouring disciplines such as sociology, psychology, social policy, or pedagogy into the mainstream of social work.

The contributions to this book converge on a small number of core issues for contemporary social work. These are methodologically the conceptualisation of different and interacting dimensions of diversity, and practically the defence of professionalism and discretion against encroachment by neo-liberal ideologies and cost-cutting regulations. In so doing, this underscores that theory matters in social work. Authentic social work research can demonstrate that social work practice has no reason to shy away from basing itself on evidence and being professionally accountable as long as its notion of evidence recognises and does justice to the complexity of social problems and acknowledges the value of inter-subjectivity in producing useable and ethically grounded evidence. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Social Work.

This book bears testimony to the value of a progressive form of academisation of social work education in most European countries, including former communist countries which had to re-establish social work education. It also manifests the confidence of contributors in belonging to a serious academic discipline, and the fruitfulness of bringing research ‘home’ from neighbouring disciplines such as sociology, psychology, social policy, or pedagogy into the mainstream of social work.

The contributions to this book converge on a small number of core issues for contemporary social work. These are methodologically the conceptualisation of different and interacting dimensions of diversity, and practically the defence of professionalism and discretion against encroachment by neo-liberal ideologies and cost-cutting regulations. In so doing, this underscores that theory matters in social work. Authentic social work research can demonstrate that social work practice has no reason to shy away from basing itself on evidence and being professionally accountable as long as its notion of evidence recognises and does justice to the complexity of social problems and acknowledges the value of inter-subjectivity in producing useable and ethically grounded evidence. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Social Work.

This book presents a unique analysis of the learning derived from East-West contacts in social work and reflects on the discipline''s inalienable trans-national dimensions, of high actuality in the face of the re-emergence of nationalisms. The fundamental transformations in Europe subsequent to the revolutions of 1989 had a profound impact on social work in terms of raising sharply the profession’s relationship with politics. The exchanges between western schools of social work and the emergent academic partner institutions in former Communist countries formed a valuable testing ground for the essential principles and competences of social work in terms of their universal scientific basis on the one hand and their regard for cultural and national values and contexts on the other. 

The chapters in this contributed volume focus on lessons derived from fundamental social and political transformations, highlighted by East-West encounters and intra-national divisions, and thereby have important messages for mastering impending transformations in the light of the global COVID-19 health crisis. They demonstrate how cultural and social divisions can be addressed constructively with direct implications for training and practice in dramatically changing contexts:

European Social Work After 1989: East-West Exchanges Between Universal Principles and Cultural Sensitivity is an invaluable resource for social work educators; social work practitioners confronted with national and international divisions; students of social work, of social administration and policy; and any policy researcher with a comparative focus.

This book discusses complex motivational conditions and strategies on macro, meso, and micro levels promoting reflectivity in interpersonal professional practice. 

The increasing demands made on practitioners in social and health services, as illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, can lead to great uncertainty over how to find "the right response" to complex expressions of need and how to account for ethical professional decisions in view of prevailing strategies of ''risk reduction'' and managerial accounting. Reflectivity has been recognised as being of central importance for guiding practitioners towards situationally differentiated and accountable practice. However, it is a complex process made up not only of different psychological components and their interplay with educational and organisational contexts, but also of multilevel interactions and purely situational conditions that can have positive or negative effects. The individual and team reflectivity can be learnedand supported through various educational and managerial opportunities, sensitively guided personal and professional experiences and specific patterns of interaction which are reviewed in the book.  

Reflective supervision in the workplace plays a pivotal role in enabling individual and team reflective processes. However, there are also social and organisational factors that can hinder the development of individual and team reflectivity. The particular value of this publication is that the authors focus on complex research findings from several consecutive studies and critically review and discuss the conditions for reflectivity from various perspectives and with the background of rich academic literature and research. Their research-derived empirical and analytical insights were submitted to managers and educators, and effective and realistic strategies and methods to enhance different levels of reflectivity in students and practitioners were discussed and are summarised in this volume. Among the topics covered:

Enhancing Professionality Through Reflectivity in Social and Health Care is pertinent reading for professors of professional academic training programmes for social workers, nurses, supervisors, trainers in non-formal learning settings, students, and managers of social and health services with an interest in enhancing organisational cultures.